The world is facing various challenges.
Globalization is the reality, Cross border activities in all walks of
life are expanding. The hope is that 21st century will usher in an era
of greater prosperity and new outlook for the world. WTO regime is
steadily expanding. However, even in the developed world, there is
growing unrest.

Table: 1

PROTESTS AGAINST GLOBALIZATION

YEAR

VENUE
OF PROTEST

REMARKS

1999 December

Seatle, USA

40,000 rallied against the WTO.

2000 February

Davos, Switzerland

At the World Economic Forum, a McDonald's was trashed.

April

Washington DC, USA

A blockage delayed talks at the World Bank and IMF.

September

Prague, Europe

A clash involving
12,000 at the World Bank
- IMF annual meeting.

September

Melbourne, Australia

Activists barricaded
delegates to WEF Conference.

December

Nice, Europe

Disruption of a European Union Summit.

2001 January

Davos - Zurich, Switzerland

The WEF was locked down, Zurich got trashed instead.

April

Quebec City, Canada

At the Summit of the Americas, tear gas and water cannons were used.

June

Barcelona, Spain

World Bank cancelled Conference; activists held their own.

June

Gothenburg, Sweden

40,000 held a peaceful march. A core of masked anarchists wielding
cobblestones created bloody mayhem at the EU Summit in the Swedish
dry port.

July

Genoa, Italy

15,000 police poured onto the streets -
armed with tear gas and water cannons.
One was killed.

The GATT preamble (1947) states that "trade
and economic endeavor should be conducted with a view to raising
standard of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily
growing volume of real income".

Unfortunately the above objectives do not seem to
be shared in developing countries.

The Marrakesh Agreement established WTO which
replaced GAAT in 1995. The WTO is a much more powerful institution due
to its institutional foundation and its dispute settlement system. Its
agenda now includes agriculture, services (financial,
telecommunications, information technology, etc.), intellectual
property rights, electronic commerce and possibly in the next round
investment, government procurement and competitive policy.

The WTO has 141 members with another 31 in the
process of accession. Out of above figure, 98 (70%) Countries are
developing Countries. Included in this are 27 nations categorised as
the least developed countries (LDCs).

One of the popular yardstick of the measure of
success of the WTO is the volume of World Trade. In the first four
years of WTO, volume of World Trade was up by 25%. However, despite
the population of LDCs being 20% of the World's population, a mere
0.03% of trade flows were generated by it. This shows that the LDCs
are not benefiting from the WTO regime.

Based on data available in the World Development
Report 2000-2001, the following table shows that seventeen countries
had 72% share of the global exports:

However, the Director General of WTO appears to
be hopeful of contribution of WTO as is apparent from excerpts of
his speech:

"The WTO seems to be copping the abuse for
the failures of every other institution in the world and for
everything that goes wrong".

(Mike Moore, DG WTO, The Financial Times, October
11, 1999)

"Every WTO member government supports open
trade because it leads to higher living standards for working
families, which in turn leads to a cleaner environment".

(Mike Moore, DG WTO, The Toronto Star, October
12,1999)

PART B: WTO: A BRIEF PROFILE

WTO was created by Uruguay Round negotiation
(1986-94) and was established on January 01, 1995. Its headquarters
is located in Geneva, Switzerland. As on May 31, 2001 its membership
was 141 with a budget of 127 million Swiss francs for 2000. Its
functions include administering WTO trade agreements, forum for
trade negotiations, handling trade disputes, monitoring national
trade policies, technical assistance and training for developing
countries and cooperation with other international organizations.

The expected hope is a more prosperous, peaceful
and accountable economic world. By lowering trade barriers, the
WTO's system also breaks down other barriers between people and
nations.

The WTO's purpose is to broaden and enforce
global free trade. Global free trade gives multinational
corporations vast powers to enforce their will against democratic
countries. This perceptive or realistic fear needs to be punctured
through developing a sound cooperation between developed world and
developing countries.

PART C: THE DEBATE

Whether developing countries are now better
integrated in the global economy or into the so-called 'economic
mainstream' will remain open for debate until there is an effective
implementation of the WTO agreements.

The ten benefits of the WTO Trading System are
listed below:

1. The system helps promote peace.2. Disputes are handled constructively.3. Rules make life easier for all.4. Freer trade cuts the cost of living.5. It provides more choice of products and qualities.6. Trade raises income.7. Trade stimulates economic growth.8. The basic principles make life more efficient.9. Governments are shielded from lobbying.10. The system encourages good government.

It is generally believed that there are ten
reasons to oppose WTO. These are summed up below:

1. The WTO only serves the interests of
multi-national corporations.2. The WTO is a stacked court.3. The WTO tramples over labour and human rights.4. The WTO is destroying the environment5. The WTO is killing people.6. The US adoption of the WTO was undemocratic.7. The WTO undermines local development and penalizes poor
countries.8. The WTO is increasing inequality.9. The WTO undermines national sovereignty.10. The tide is turning against free trade and the WTO.

The WTO has released ten common misunderstandings
about the WTO on the internet People have different views of the
pros and cons of the WTO's 'multilateral' trading system. It is
claimed that it serves as a forum for countries to thrash out their
differences on trade issues. The above misunderstandings are listed
below:

1. The WTO dictates policy.2. The WTO is for free trade at any cost.3. Commercial interests take priority over development.4. Commercial interests take priority over the environment.5. Commercial interests take priority over health and safety.6. The WTO destroys jobs and worsens poverty.7. Small Countries are powerless in the WTO.8. The WTO is the tool of powerful lobbies.9. Weaker Countries are forced to join the WTO.10. The WTO is undemocratic

The WTO has attempted to provide answers to the
above so that perception about the WTO becomes clear.

The World Bank has also been conducting their
research on the impact of the WTO on developing countries. With good
hope of the WTO Director General, developing countries strongly
expect to see goods delivered in a fair manner to ensure
accomplishing goals for which the WTO was set up.

PART D: IMPLICATIONS OF FOUNDING THE WTO

Five years of founding of the WTO have identified
the following implications for developing Countries:

Table: 3

IMPLICATIONS OF FOUNDING WTO

1.

Agreement on
Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIM)

High tech transnationals
like Microsoft and Intel have acquired right to
monopolize innovation in the knowledge intensive industries and
provided bio- technology firms like Novartis and Monsanto the
go-signal to revitalize the fruits of eons of creative interaction
between human communities and nature such as seeds, plants and
animal life.

2.

Agreement on Agriculture (AOA)

Developing countries have agreed to open up their markets while allowing
the big agricultural super powers to consolidate their system of
subsidized agricultural production.

3.

Legal System

It enshrined the priority of free trade above every other good, above the
environment, justice, equity and community.

*Available on internet See selected bibliography.

PART-E: FARMERS ASSURED SAFEGUARDS ON POST QR*
REGIME

Inaugurating a Conference on impact of WTO on
Indian agriculture and marketing cooperatives, the agriculture
minister of India assured the farm sector of effective safeguards to
counter the challenges from dismantling the quantitative
restrictions from April 2001 under WTO and asserted that it would
protect farmers interests in case of sudden upsurge in imports.

CONCLUDING COMMENTS

It is high time that developing countries rise to
the occasion of understanding and accepting new forces of
competitive world and restructure their economies to adjust to new
competitive realities. This will enable them to weed out wastages
and stay competitive, despite no equality of level playing field.

However, developed world must also adopt a fair
outlook to ensure that developing countries stay as productive
partners in socio-economic development aspects.

The WTO and other global and national
institutions must undertake research to visualize implications of
the WTO regime to ensure social peace and tranquility.